Ok. I will start the TIDY ROOM CHALLENGE. Note: this is really embarrassing! But maybe that's part of the healing process?

The room I've chosen is my office. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Here's the view from the hallway. Least of my worries is that I never put curtains up, even though I bought them. Note also, that the cats think this is their room. It has a pretty cute view of the street and neighboring rooftops, as well as a great view of the sunset. In fact, it's my only upstairs window that faces west. So I thought it would be perfect for an office. There is a desk in front of the window where I have on occasion done some writing and enjoyed the view. But not for well over a year. It's also the room where I keep shipping supplies and stuff but I have a new printer in the basement and no need to do the shipping up there anymore. Let's not even get into the closet. OK, on to some details.

Bookcase 1 & 2. Who knows. A mishmash of books, tchochkes, art I keep meaning to frame, and down below...w-t-f pillows. And a cat.

Corner of...shipping supplies and crepe.

More pillows, blankets, and...a cat!

Another bookcase with crepe and a printer I no longer use.

A little dresser thingy that my ex and I dragged home in Brooklyn one rainy night. I love this thing and wish it were functional cause there are some great drawers inside. Currently loaded with crepe and shipping supplies.

Another printer??? And the rest of the corner.

Maybe we can start by removing this yoga matt?

Anyway, my goals for this room! A functional office. I would love if I could have a pinboard for stuff that inspires me all Oprah-style. I still need a place for the shipping supplies, so I might need them in there, but perhaps in an organize way. But ideally, I'd like to move the bulk of them to the basement, perhaps. I'd like curtains up and I really want to paint, too. All the other rooms in the house are pretty colors, for the most part. I don't know, perhaps perriwinkle or something. Ultimately, a relaxing, comfortable space where I can write.

I'll start today by putting stuff in containers and getting rid of some of those pillows. Wish me luck!!!

Lepelaar, I too had a neat freak mother. It was always easier for her to clean than to teach me how to do it though, so I fail at being tidy...

Yes, that was my problem too. I'd come home from school to the smell of polish and find my mum had blitzed my room with no warning, and I didn't even get to see how she did it. Privacy invaded, no compensating skills learnt. Not that I'm bitter or anything...

_________________"Wait a minute. There is a holiday for eight days of fried food and I haven't been celebrating it?! This is not right." - Rhizopus Oligosporus

Haha, the dreaded Container-Hoarding-Epidemic-Reversal. C.H.E.R.? Keep trying, it works if you work it.

If others love the idea of a tidy room challenge, let's do it!

I'm in. Pick a room, mine all need work.

How about start with the smallest one?

Okay. That's the worst one, actually. The back office. Everything gets crammed in there out of sight. There's a sofa bed in there which had mice on it and I need to remove, wash and refit the covers. There's a desk which used to contain my computer and printer but my computer broke so now the printer is an orphan. I need to check if it's compatible with my laptop but I can't really get to it because my bike I am now too disabled to ride is in there blocking the way, so I should probably freecycle that or something. There's also a chest of drawers with cards and envelopes and stuff in which could do with a good sort out.

Then there are two more chests of drawers in there. One has useful documents in, although I've never needed them, so I should rationalize that, and the other was a general dumping ground for craft and diy stuff which I should either add to the rest in other parts of the house or dump.

_________________"Wait a minute. There is a holiday for eight days of fried food and I haven't been celebrating it?! This is not right." - Rhizopus Oligosporus

I'm in! I'm an organized slob. Which is maybe another way of saying I'm lazy and live with someone who doesn't know how to clean or organize a thing. This room is our worst. It's basically become a dumping spot. I'd like to make it into a useful room, but paralysis about what to even do with it (it has five doors for instance) keeps me from doing anything. Note the table that needs to be sold on craigslist, the still-packed from last vacation suitcase, the giant table saw in a box, and the box of festival supplies from April.

Another thing that helps me is holding fast to the rule that something must be beautiful or useful to remain in my home. I keep a handful of sentimental things (a small bookcase), but I am merciless with this rule. It really helped me part with clutter.

Right, this is the room that needs sorting quickly.So clogged with junk it is difficult to even get into the room. Going to borrow the neighbours ladder on Tuesday evening so I can get some of the stuff put into the attic for storage. There are gardening stuff stored in there too which can go into the attic for now also because there is no way I will be using any of it this year. Also a couple of suitcases that can go to the attic. There is a broken TV in there and a broken, incredibly old laptop that need to go to the dump. There are a couple of empty tins of paint that I keep meaning to take to the dump for safe disposal too.

The shame.... some of my framed photography plastered in mud thanks to not hanging them up and a dog that loves mud.

To get started I got rid of the lawnmower box and a couple of other bits of recycling into the recycling bin. I won't have much in the way of spare time tomorrow so I pulled out a small box with stuff in it that I will go through when I get home.

I'm a tidy sort of person but I have kids. There are so many crap-respositories around the house DVD my urge is to sweep the lot into a bin bag, but no doubt they are piles of precious things and I can't afford to pay for the years of therapy.

I might pick a crud-corner and have a go at it tomorrow. The 'Art Shelves' in the kitchen I think...

Isa, I think a colorful peg board would look great in there and help a lot with organizing! There are a ton on Pinterest. And you could get a thrifted chair for the cats to sleep in.

I don't need the tidy room challenge because uh, I still don't have a lot of furniture and so a lot of my knick-knacks are still in boxes. I need an unpacking challenge. I also need someone to make me go pick out a bedroom set and a dining table and then help me get them to our house. My office is the sun room so it's big and...sunny, but my desk does get wrecked on a daily basis.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

People with book problems, check out www.paperbackswap.com. You get credits for books you mail out, and in my experience, the credits build up faster than the books you want. Obviously not helpful if you're bringing in the same amount you're getting rid of, but it worked for me. I only have one shelf of fiction left, and then some art and music books of mine and my husband's that we'll never get rid of.

Right, this is the room that needs sorting quickly.So clogged with junk it is difficult to even get into the room. Going to borrow the neighbours ladder on Tuesday evening so I can get some of the stuff put into the attic for storage. There are gardening stuff stored in there too which can go into the attic for now also because there is no way I will be using any of it this year. Also a couple of suitcases that can go to the attic. There is a broken TV in there and a broken, incredibly old laptop that need to go to the dump. There are a couple of empty tins of paint that I keep meaning to take to the dump for safe disposal too.

The shame.... some of my framed photography plastered in mud thanks to not hanging them up and a dog that loves mud.

To get started I got rid of the lawnmower box and a couple of other bits of recycling into the recycling bin. I won't have much in the way of spare time tomorrow so I pulled out a small box with stuff in it that I will go through when I get home.

Such a cute room! I like the wall color and it looks like there is lots of greenery outside. I can't wait to see the transformation.

I'm in! I'm an organized slob. Which is maybe another way of saying I'm lazy and live with someone who doesn't know how to clean or organize a thing. This room is our worst. It's basically become a dumping spot. I'd like to make it into a useful room, but paralysis about what to even do with it (it has five doors for instance) keeps me from doing anything. Note the table that needs to be sold on craigslist, the still-packed from last vacation suitcase, the giant table saw in a box, and the box of festival supplies from April.

I'm a pretty tidy person, but I am really interested to see these transformations! My office is not the most organized, but it's probably not worth posting. It's also a studio space for T., so there's not a whole lot I can do about the mess that creates.

_________________Did you notice the slight feeling of panic at the words "Chicken Basin Street"? Like someone was walking over your grave? Try not to remember. We must never remember. - mumblesIs this about devilberries and nazifruit again? - footface

I love the idea of tidy room challenges! I'm actually a very clean and tidy person so I won't normally need this in the same way as maybe others, but I do get kind of horde-y and pile-y, and really neglect things like paperwork.

Right now though I'm working on totally moving myself out of this house into a 5x5 storage room and my truck. Considering I can pretty much entirely furnish and definitely decorate an entire three-bedroom house, this will be difficult. I'm hopeful though.

Isa! I think for all those pillows you should put them into a plastic garbage bag, and vacuum all the air out! I did this with a bunch of pillows I didn't want rid of, and it was SO AWESOME. Works for anything fabric, too. Like, have a bunch of tablecloths taking up space? I found the best method was to stick the tube in pressing hard against the fabric, or else it would suck the plastic bag up, and also tie a string around the plastic bag and tube, and when you're removing the tube to tighten the string closed, keep the vacuum on for all that even though it makes it a bit awkward.

I totally need this thread for inspiration! Our bedroom is the worst, just because I keep the door closed when we have visitors so I just throw miscellaneous shiitake in there from all over the house in emergency guest situations. I also have way too many clothes- a ton of them are already in garbage bags or huge, wobbling piles ready to be donated but I keep forgetting to actually take them out of the house.

I also have a cupboard in my kitchen full of broken things and ice cube trays that I'm never going to use. I threw everything in there when we moved in a year ago, and haven't opened it since. That's probably a good starting point for dealing with the kitchen items I never use (I too have a ravioli maker gathering dust- just because I used it once and it sucked).

The garage also needs to be dealt with, but most of that is Boyfriend's problem. We have two mangled couches in there that one of the dogs chewed on when he was a puppy, but Boyfriend keeps insisting that we can save them and then put a ping pong table in there and hang out. I have to keep reminding him that he borderline refuses to go in the garage now because he's terrified of spiders, so why would a ping pong table make him want to spend time in there? It's still a forking garage.

But! I am feeling more inspired to actually deal with it and get rid of a ton of stuff. The timing sucks now since I'm on crutches and can't really carry stuff around but I'll join in soon!

I tried to choose a room to start, but I did what I always do and run around all frantically from room to room, doing a million random things. The house doesn't look a ton different, but I do have 2 huge bags of clothes (mine & Silas') to donate, so that's a good step I guess.

I think next weekend, I'll tackle my closet and then my laundry room. The smallest areas that are feasible to finish relatively easily.

Oh, I so need this thread. I'm living at home again this summer, and my goal is clean out my closet, the random junk boxes under my bed, and two drawers in my dresser that are just full of crepe. I've gotten rid of so much stuff the past couple years, but there is still random crepe I don't know what to do with and need to get rid of, and the stuff I want to keep I need to organize better.

I have a few days off this week, so hopefully I can tackle some of it.

I have OCD - people assume I am clean, I am not - I am very disorganized and afraid of 'dirty germs'. I really want to get my shiitake together & get the house in order. I have been trying baby steps, but not seeing as much progress as I would like.

Cool thread. Since I moved out of my dad's house and don't have someone yelling at me about this stuff all the time (and about how I'm a worthless human being because I loaded the dishwasher wrong) I realized I really do like things to be VERY tidy and I've been working on developing the necessary habits to maintain that without killing myself. I've found a few things that help, but of course I'm not perfect and this is so very specific to my situation.

1. I always fold my laundry right after I take it out of the dryer and put it all away immediately. I always make my bed right after I get up. I don't think it matters that it's those two tasks specifically, but those are two things that are physically manageable for me nearly every time they need doing (my laundry is in my apartment) and since I do them all the time, I'm very fast at them now.

I think what makes the difference for me about this really is that I don't need to make a decision in the moment about whether I'm going to do those things. Deciding anything takes a lot of energy for me. Having those two tasks on autopilot makes them go faster and it's just less to worry about. (I use predecision for all sorts of things besides cleaning. It's a really useful strategy for me since I just get overwhelmed with options.)

2. I know that everything always falls apart during the last week of the semester (right now!) so I pre-clean. I pretty aggressively go through everything to get rid of as much recycling as I can, clear out the fridge, dust the tv, etc. Then when things deteriorate it doesn't get quite as bad and I'm not digging myself out of a giant mess. Then I plan some time a couple days after my last exam/project to clean up.

3. When I DO need to dig out, I do it really differently from how any strategy guide I've personally seen suggests. I have attention modulation issues, so focusing on just one area in a room doesn't work for me somehow. It doesn't really make enough of a visual impact for, depending on the area. So I work categorically, moving from low effort/high impact to high effort/low impact tasks.

So if I were cleaning my room the first thing I would do is make the bed, if I didn't already. Then I would put all of the laundry in the basket. Then I would go around with a trash bag and get all the trash. Then the recycling. Books. File papers. and so on, until I'm walking around my room collecting bobby pins. (It also makes more sense in my head to go around my room and collect everything that goes in a certain place and then go put it there than to stand at my bedside table and sort it out when some of that stuff goes on the bookcase, some on my desk, etc.)

This can be hard if you can't bend and it also takes more energy to keep doing loops. One thing to maybe think about is to find ways to sit as much as possible while you do stuff. So maybe a rolling chair or stool would help. And if you have to sort through lots random stuff in a drawer somewhere, pull out the drawer (or put the contents in a basket or something) and sit on the couch with containers for sorting.

I have been keeping house for many years ... I want my home to always be tidy enough for drop-in visitors, although 'dropping in' is not an English thing ... it certainly was in my homeland of Canada ... anyway this is what I do ...

every day - make the bed, do the dishes (washing up), swap the basins (kitchen & bathrooms), top of the flower water (a vase of bargain blooms make a room look cared for), sweep the kitchen floor, remove 'in the wrong room' objects as I pass through them ...

I definitely let things go sometimes...I'm terrible at putting away laundry and keeping the bed made everyday...but I think I'm pretty good at keeping my apartment mostly clean and clutter free. One of the main driving forces for me is helping my mom clean her house, which is very, very cluttered. She has two empty bedrooms that serve as a dumping room, and last weekend I started tackling the worst one. A large room stuffed to the gills, with about a 6-inch-wide path from the door do the middle. To start, I wanted to get as much stuff off the floor as possible in the beginning, so I organized the closet first. Then I was able to take stuff from the floor and put it in there. Being able to see more of the floor made the project feel a lot less overwhelming.

From there I started grouping stuff into piles.....crafty stuff, recyclables, clothes, knick-knacks, paperwork etc. There were some of those large Rubbermaid storage containers, so I put crafty stuff in one, blankets in another. I completely filled a bag with trash, so that was a whole bag of stuff that's no longer filling up the room.

Because it's my mom's stuff and not mine, she'll have to go through certain things herself, but at least that stuff is all together in one spot and it will be a lot less overwhelming when she finally decides to look though it. I'm not done with the room, but I put a huge dent in it and next time it won't be so overwhelming. I definitely spent some time standing in the middle of it all thinking, "How do I even do this?" My goal is to make it look like a room you would want to hang out in, not like a space my mom doesn't want anyone to see.

For my own place, I have a couple of guidelines:

-Trash and recyclables immediately go in their respective receptacles. Before I put a bin for recyclables under my sink, my counter was cluttered all the time with jars and cans.

-The living room must look good at all times. No dishes or clothes lying around. Mail stays in the bowl by the door, not around the bowl.

-If I'm in a store and I see something that I really like, I ask myself where it will go in my apartment. If I can't think of a good spot, I don't buy it.

-If I'm having trouble finding places to store things, it's time to purge. If I can't fit all of my non-hanging clothes in my dresser, something's gotta go. If my bookcases are so full that I've started stacking books on top of the ones that are lined up like they should be, it's time to make some cuts. These two things help a lot....my local Goodwill has a drive-thru drop-off and my grocery store has a clothing drop-off bin in the parking lot. I drop stuff off at Goodwill every couple of months or so, and I don't even have to get out of my car.

Also, there's cleaning, and there's THE BIG CLEAN. When I vacuum, I don't move every piece of furniture. There are cat hair tumbleweeds behind the couch. I don't dust every room every time I dust. Sometimes I mop around stuff instead of moving it to a different room. It helps me to know that I don't have to give 100% every time. As long as everything looks presentable, I'm happy. There will be no white-glove tests.